As a result of legislation the electronics industry faces product takeback and
recycling. It is therefore important to understand the environmental burden caused by
discarded consumer electronics and also how to better manage raw materials.
The thesis begins with a review of current environmental issues from the
viewpoint of the electronics industry. This shows that there are many complex
interactions to be considered within any environmental framework particularly those
between legislation, technology and business. Consideration of the drivers indicates
that work should focus on the design understanding required to allow product life
extension as well as current strategies addressing the reprocessing of used products.
The body of the thesis therefore has two themes, both of which use
telecommunications products, telephones, as their exemplar. The first theme, the
design issues related to the end-of-life management is explored via a benchmarking
study of eight telephones from European (UK and Germany) and Far Eastern suppliers
(China and Malaysia). This study allowed the generation of design rules for such
products. The work also examined the impact of design changes to improve end-of-life
practices on manufacturing costs in Europe and the Pacific Rim to indicate the
constraints of labour and investment costs.
The second theme links the business and technological issues faced in the endof-
life (EOL) management of electronic products. The EOL options considered are:
resale, remanufacturing, recycling, disposal and to a limited extent, upgrading. Building
on the technological understanding generated in the first theme accurate economic
models are derived, based on commercial data, for exemplar telephone products that
reflect the activities within each option. The potential revenue from each option
indicates preferred design strategies and the models can therefore help resolve some of
the uncertainties faced by decision makers.
The thesis closes by identifying that the design rules and financial models are
particularly appropriate for mature products such as the telephones used as exemplars,
further research is therefore necessary to extend the existing work to high added value
products.

Description:

A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.